M&A Deal Leaks And Due Diligence: Seller Beware

The New York Times DealBook calls it a ‘dark art.’ It’s the skill of strategically leaking M&A deal talks in order to give the seller an upper hand in the negotiations.

M&A transactions

This happens more often than you'd think, and not even the largest deals seem to be spared.  News of M&A transactions such as Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), H.J. Heinz Company (NYSE:HNZ), American-US Airways Group Inc (NYSE:LCC) and Liberty Media Corp (NASDAQ:LMCA) (NASDAQ:LMCB)-Virgin Media Inc. (NASDAQ:VMED) (LON:VMED) all seemed to find their way into the media well before the deals fructified, though it can’t be said whether the seller was responsible for the leaks in these cases.

Cass Business School and IntraLinks conducted a study of...